Make Soap Without Using Lye

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Did you know that your skin is the largest organ of your body? Makes sense when you think about it. That’s why it’s so important for me to stay away from chemical cleaners, and choose my personal care products wisely.

I’ve read quite a bit about making my own soap. There’s hot-process, cold-process, crockpot soap…lots of different techniques and recipes.

The simplest recipes contain only a few ingredients and are all natural. Unfortunately, lye is one of those ingredients–and because it is so caustic, I don’t want to use it or even have it around with kids in the house.

Am I being overly paranoid? Probably. But if I don’t have any lye in the house, there won’t be any spills, nobody will get chemical burns…you get the picture. I’ll sleep better at night.

The secret to making soap without lye is called melt-and-pour soapmaking. With this technique, the lye work is already done and all that’s left is the fun part–crafting your own unique varieties of soap!

Mix thoroughly and pour into your mold. There may be some small bubbles or drips on the top, but that’s OK.

Allow to cool for several hours before unmolding. The silicone pan makes it easy, and the bars are already formed. If you’re using a loaf pan with parchment, you can cut the soap into bars with a sharp knife.

Your soap is ready to use now. It will last longer if you let it cure in a cool, dry place with plenty of air. I cure mine on a shelf in the linen closet, and it smells great when I open the door.

The melt and pour bases have the lye already in them. Soap cannot be made without it. Look at the ingredients but it is not bad it just raises the pH and that is what the chemical reaction is for. I did a lot of research because I was worried about it too.

I have found a small selection of soap bases at Michaels, Hobby Lobby and other craft stores, and use the store’s coupons to get a better price (usually 30-40% off). Without the coupon, a 2-lb. tray usually goes for around $9.99. Michael’s has a decent selection of “essential oil/fragrance oil” blends for melt and pour. I also have some favorite online resources for melt and pour bases: http://www.wholesalesuppliesplus.com, http://www.bulkapothecary.com, and http://www.brambleberry.com, to name just a few. Wholesale Supplies offers free UPS ground shipping with a $35 (I think) order. Amazon probably has the best prices on silicone molds, but sometimes you can find them at craft stores after a holiday season for half off the regular prices.

Anyone who says you can make soap without lye doesn’t know how to make soap. The melt and pour is made with lye. and you don’t make it you melt it. I have been making soap for a long time. I have made the melt and pour soap. It is made with lye.

Hi can you tell me a simple soap recipe with lye for a beginner please (quantity, ingredients and how many soaps it will make.)? I would like to try to do it myself but I wish it can be an allergy-free (eczema) soap. Thanks 🙂

Raphaelle, a soap recipe with instructions would take up a lot of space here, so here’s a link to a basic soap recipe with tea tree (tea tree oil is antibacterial and may help with eczema), but truthfully, any handmade soap that doesn’t contain all the chemicals found in commercial soaps is better for eczema. In addition to the 5 oils/butter in this recipe, I use rice bran oil, avocado oil, cocoa butter and mango butter. But this is actually a good basic recipe as these oils (olive, coconut, palm kernel, castor and shea butter) are excellent and are the standards used by most soap crafters.

The base I linked to above is from Michael’s and has some “iffy” ingredients. This one is much better: http://amzn.to/1hJvliG. I linked to the exact one I used, since that seemed like the honest thing to do. 🙂

IMO, there are far fewer chemicals in homemade CP soap than this MP. If the reasoning behind using MP is to get away from harmful chemicals, then I certainly wouldn’t go with any of this. If the reasoning is to just have someone else handle the lye while you decorate, then I can see using this, but would rather just buy from a CP soaper.

It also depends where you get it I got goats milk soap base that has about 5 ingredients from bulkapothecary.com and it seems a lot more natural. My reasoning for soap base right now is I don’t want to be handling lye at 7 months pregnant. So I tried to find a still healthy alternative.

Our family prefers liquid soap – we find we use less and it leaves less soap scum to clean up later :-). Have you tried any natural liquid soap recipes you like? The natural ones are so spendy at the store!

I use soap nuts (technically soap berries). You can buy the berries and boil them to extract the saponins to form a liquid soap. I add glycerin and xanthan gum (mix the glycerin and xanthan gum first to avoid clumping) to mine to thicken it a bit to make it more usable for hand soap and shampoo. I leave it plain liquid for household cleaning and laundry. It’s about as natural as you can get for soap.

I’ve been reading a lot about
herbs for a while and the chemical makeup of saponins
causes the foaming action of
our soap. Suppose that’s where
the word came from long ago.
One herb I remember is called
Soapwort . I just also had read
recently about fenugreek for
other reasons because Dr.
Rogers school of Medicine
mentioned it being able to
induce muscle mass and strength and it lowers cholesterol. It is anti-viral and
anti-parasitic. So, just had to
mention that, since most herbs
can help ones body in many ways and be able to help make
soap ! Well, it also says it has
a dozen saponins ! I didn’t
realize that there was that many.
So much to learn…..
I wondered how that could be
used in soap . I need to go back
to this one particular book that
I have that is very in depth about all the chemical constituents in herbs and their
uses. It lists 5 different areas
to locate sopoanins and what
herbs have them. I just don’t
know how you’d go about using
them in a soap product.
There are certain ways using
particular liquids or expeller
methods to get those constituents out of a plant.
Some are simmering in water,
Some are soaked in oil and
slightly warmed for weeks or
months and tinctures use an
alcohol to release the good
stuff . Lol…. Hmmmm, I think
long ago they would have
had a big cauldron and simmered the plants for awhile,
then removed them and continued on with the making of
it. They could take the fresh
plant to the stream and rub it
on their hair and body to soap up, as we say. Anyway, if your
interested in this book that I
really like, and want to know
which plants have saponins,
It is called ; Medical Herbalism,
By David Hoffman, FNIMH, AHG. I got it on Amazon for
about $30.00. Has close to 700
pgs.. It even can teach you
how to make tinctures, Decoctions, poultices, tea,extracts, glycerites like
Sambucus cough medicine.
But has much more good uses
than just that. ( Elderberry ).
As you can probably see, I have
a lot of fun learning about all
these things and the money I
can save making my own
herbal remedies for my family.
And, do they ever work !
No cold germ lasts around here
for more than 2 days. Usually
less. One of these days I’ll get
to the soap making. Your idea
sounds great !

Hi, I am a long time Soap Maker using lye, while I respect your decision to buy melt and pour soap base, its very important to know what is in that soap base, there are numerous places to buy melt and pour soap online. I was also was very nervous when I first started out making homemade soap do to the lye situation, but with careful handling and proper equipment its no big deal, but I do not have little ones running around any longer. I would just make sure that your soap base is pure and natural, Brambleberry is a great source for melt and pour soap, and you can add all kinds of things to your base. Have fun get creative! I just wanted people to know that with proper handling the lye situation can be conquered! If homemade soap is of interest to anyone.

I agree with some of the above statements. All soaps are, at some point, made with lye. The soap base that you are using also contains a preservative, Methylchloroisothiazoline, that can cause allergic reactions for people with eczema. Many times things sound good and easy but when you make bar soap from scratch, you don’t need preservatives and it really doesn’t have to be all that hard.

I have always wanted to find a recipe for soap made without lye! I am so glad I found this recipe via Small Footprint Friday. My favorite scents would be lavender or orange.I often wonder why more people don’t make soaps without lye. Why is lye used so often in natural handmade soaps?

ALL soap, even the MP base is made with lye. The reason that lye is used so often in natural handmade soaps is because there is NO other way to make it. Without Lye, you do NOT have soap. Period. The MP bases are “making soap without lye” because the company that has made the base has already made the soap and used the lye for you. There is no such thing as soap made without lye. At some point, someone added lye to fat and/or oils to make it into soap. That is what sanctification is.

Miranda, I believe you mean to say “saponification” not “sanctification”…I’m an old-time soapmaker who has used lye and would rather do that than have MP soap with propylene glycol, which is used in antifreeze and all the sodium lauryl sulfates and sodium laureth sulfates, which makes the MP soap sudsy…and many other ingredients that are not so good for our bodies.

Please be careful using herbs such as cinnamon. They can be very irritating to the skin. Also when using essential oils, you need to use a safe amount. Please weigh all your ingredients and research how much oil to use per pound (16 oz) of base. Then you can calculate from there either up or down. Brambleberry has wonderful bases and a handy fragrance calculator for either fragrance oils or essential oils. Soap making is a lot of fun and you can get very creative with melt and pour.

awesome! thank you very much- just the soap making recipe i was looking for. 🙂 can you please tell me how long you think the shelf life of the soap is (should i make a big batch), and the best way to store it, like in an air tight container?

Soap does not go bad 🙂
However, the longer it cures the better it gets!
It is best to store it a container that gets some air circulation.
Soap that has fragrance in it may not smell as strong after some months (or years!) especially the citrus-type scents.

This week’s edition of Wildcrafting Wednesday is all about personal care and cleaning and getting rid of the toxic and disposable items we use every day on our bodies and in our homes. This would be a great addition and I hope you’ll share it with us this week on Wildcrafting Wednesday.

This is as close to “making soap” as melting popsicles and refreezing in a different shape is “making popsicles.”

Someone else made the soap in a factory, and the harsh chemicals the author mentions are still in this product. What do you think was used to make the soap base?

This kind of irks me, much the same way people who go buy wax from a hobby store and melt it down say they made a candle.
Unless you actually make your own soap (or wax for candles lol) you haven’t made soap. You’ve simply molded it..

All soap bases contain lye unless they’re glycerin based only, so you’re not really avoiding lye. It’s impossible to make soap without lye, this recipe just saves you the step of making the lye based soap block first.

You can’t make soap of any kind with out using some sort of lye. If you are using melt and pour, you are not making soap you are using someone else’s soap that they used lye in.
” Making” handmade soap is a very different process.

I understand that this is a way to make soap without you having to deal with lye but it is misleading to make people think that soap can be made without lye. It can’t, period. Lye must be used to make soap. Someone from Wildcrafting was excited for you to post there because they think the soap base which is really called melt and pour is less toxic. Melt and Pour soap base has preservative and detergents in it which are more toxic than learning to make soap the old fashioned way with lye. After you make soap there is no lye remaining in your handmade soaps and you don’t have the addition of detergents or preservatives. I respect those who make soap using melt and pour and you can create some awesome soaps with it, but if you are doing it to be more earth friendly then I have to disagree there. Although, they are coming out with some better product lately.

If you want to go totally handmade, you
can make the lye. It is only wood ash
from your fireplace and water.
Although I don’t know how long the
ash should be in the water.
But it sure is good to know if the
Zombie apocalypse occurs and we
can’t go to a store or order it ! Lol !!
Check it out on a prepper site.

If anyone is too nervous to make soap from scratch but you also don’t like some of the extra questionable ingredients in melt and pour, you might look into “rebatching” a quality unscented natural soap. Basically you grate a bar of real soap, melt it down with some water and any essential oils or additives like oats, etc, mold and let it cure for a week or two. I don’t know exact measurements but many great soap making books and sites will have the info. Just look for “hand milled soap” recipes! This is a great compromise between from scratch and melt and pour and will most likely yield a high quality soap. Hope this helps some of you!

I was so just about to say exactly this. if you are using any melt and pour base there will be lye in it. It will have just gone through the saponification process and become soap. If you are going to use a melt and pour base for the love of god don’t buy the crap on amazon and in craft store, get it from a soap making supply company like Bramble Berry.

I grew up in the Ozarks on a farm with my folks, grandparents & other extended family. They were very selfsufficient. We made much of what we needed & sold ( or often gave away ) the excess. I remember soap making every fall. A lot of preparation went into it. All year bacon fat was saved, to be added to the lard rendered the previous fall, rainwater was collected, ash from the woodstove & fireplace was saved too. When it got nearer time for soap making, the lye would be leached from the ash. All the children were cautioned to stay away from the lye barrel & we did, because the warning was accompanied by grusume tales of the results if we got into it! When Grandma decided it was a good day to make soap , she got out the big iron cauldron only used for that purpose,gathered up the lard & rendered drippings, the lye water, and made enough soap for the whole year. Some was for heavy duty cleaning, & other was for bathing. The heavy duty one was harsher than the bath soap. The last year I remember her making soap was1959. Each year from about 5, I got to help with a different part of the process as she determined I was ready for, until I learned all I needed to know to make soap.

I enjoyed reading everyone’s stories about making soap. I have been wanting to make soap for Christmas gifts and I was afraid because of the lye, but now I have many choices and I am excited to make my homemade soaps. Thanks everyone!!! Happy Thanksgiving!!!!

There is no such thing as real soap without lye, as someone else mentioned here. Melt and Pour soap though is a great way to make soap without having to work directly with lye. However, I must caution everyone to read the ingredients!

Many of the soap bases you buy at Michael’s or Hobby Lobby have sulfates and other unsavory ingredients. Please, please read and know what you are putting on your body. Also, be very aware that in order to make soap meltable they have to add a solvent. That solvent is something they consider an industry secret and don’t add to the ingredients label. It can range from simple glycerine to straight alcohol, and anything in-between. Glycerine is a natural byproduct of the soapmaking process anyway, but by adding more you can make it clearer and more meltable, but it does result in a soap that is a bit stickier and more prone to melting. This is why many manufacturers trend toward less savory options or a mixture thereof. So if you are going to do this, and I heartily hope you do, you might want to stick with organic bases such as those available at Brambleberry or GloryBee Foods.

Another item I feel I must add – before using any spices, herbs or essential oils do your homework. Many, such as cinnamon, can cause irritation if not used with great care, some can lead to sensitized skin and photo-sensitivity, and other unintended side effects.

The lye (sodium hydroxide) is completely used up when you make soap. It basically is just there as part of a chemical reaction. If soap is made properly there shouldn’t be any left in the final product. Definitely not a good chemical to have around kids though…

No such thing as soap without lye (sodium hydroxide). You are not making soap; you are using already made soap and remelting it…which you can’t do with real handmade cold process soap. You can do it with “melt and pour” soap because it has some type of alcohol added to it.

If you do some research, all soap is made with lye. The melt and pore soap base has already been done for you, which with children is a good thing. You cannot make soap without lye of some kind. You even make glycerin with lye at the beginning so I just wanted you to think about that. Look on line, I have done my research so I know.

Ahh wheesht ( scottish word for “be quiet”) the lot of you. Do you have a bar of soap at the end of the process? Yes ! So it is making a bar of soap from ingredients. Therefore it is soap making!! Good luck and thank you for sharing your recipe. There will always be those who remove joy to be prescriptive. Xxx

Do you have a bar of soap before you begin the project? YES. Because it’s already soap. To pretend this is soap making is an insult to all of us who actually make our own soap. And the product is inferior to real handmade soap. If you’re looking for a craft project for a young child, this would qualify, but it’s not even remotely close to the art of crafting soap.

What I mostly object to is the title, Making Soap Without Using Lye…it’s a lie. You CAN NOT make soap without some type of lye.

i totally agree, which is why i really want to learn how to make soap from scratch! We really dont have anything like that around my area. I think i’m just over complicating the whole process and just need to start. I did find some lye at home hardware which says 100% lye crystals on it, but i will check out that site for my next batch, thanks Lori.
If you have any basic recipes that would help me start out please send them my way!
Thanks,
Carly

thank you for your response… i just attended a soap workshop over the weekend and had several questions but she wasn’t much help. maybe you can help me? I’m wondering how to use the soap calculator.. i dont have a set recipe, just certain ingredients i would like to use (olive oil, coconut and lye). But how do you know how many grams of each ? I just want a simple 2 lb recipe that i can adjust as i go. Also have you worked with micas? i recieved some in the mail, tried it couple times and not turning out as i thought it would. Do you add it to the soap or just to some oil seperately ? soo many questions!

You are not “making soap” you are remolding it. The melt and pour bases can be just as bad as bars you get in a store. You can buy lye anywhere as long as it is says 100% sodium hydroxide and has no dyes. I get mine at Tractor supply. I use 5 ingredients in my basic soap– olive oil, coconut oil, lard, goat milk and lye. Run the ingredients through soap Calc and have a bottle of vinegar on hand when working with lye. It’s really not that bad. Once you just do it you’ll wonder what all the worrying was about. Take the plunge and really MAKE soap!

Welcome! I’m Pam.If you’re a busy person who wants to be healthy, live naturally, and save money, you’re in the right place.